EU commission to review insurance companies not rewarding Good Driving Histories
Motorists are not benefitting from good driving histories across the EU with lower insurance premiums, Mairead McGuinness Fine Gael MEP for Roscommon and Vice-President of the European Parliament said today. And the Commission has now confirmed to the MEP that a review of the issue is to be undertaken.
Ms McGuinness said that under existing EU law, the Motor Credit Directive is intended to ensure that consumers receive the benefits of having no claims bonuses. “After all, the EU internal market is based on a principle of mutual recognition of goods and services. In the area of car insurance, premiums should be reduced if the driver has a low-incident or accident-free driving record.
“Policyholders do have the right to request, at any time, a statement of their third party liability claims and insurers must provide such statements within 15 days of the request. The problem, however, is where drivers move from one Member State to another some insurers are not recognising their driving histories and reducing their premiums accordingly. In effect the current Directive is not working in this respect because individual insurers may decide how and whether they take account of these statements,” she said.
Acknowledging that the Commission has received many complaints from consumers that their claims history statements have not been taken into account by insurers when moving from one Member State to another Elzbieta Bienkowska, Commissioner for the Internal Market has responded to Ms McGuinness saying:
“The Commission plans to launch an evaluation of how the Motor Insurance Directive is working towards the end of this year. As part of that, the Commission plans to explore how to strengthen transferability of motor third party liability claims statements between insurers, especially when the policyholder moves from one Member State to another.”
Further information: Mairead McGuinness, MEP Tel. 087 259 1829